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July 13, 2012

Here's another re-post of a favorite recipe... Whoopie Pies. This post receives a ton of traffic from google for people searching "Whoopie Pie from a Cake Mix." I guess everyone likes a good ole treat with a good ole shortcut!

Our House Project is in the home stretch... 4 months down, 3 more months to go. That's the home stretch, right? I know everyone is ready for Spring, but for us, Spring means getting to move in to our new home that we've been planning for 2 years and saving for 4. Gulp.

It was 68 degrees here yesterday... and I feel like I've tricked myself into believing that spring is almost here. I'm in pre-spring cleaning mode at the store, moving everything out to make room. In the Sale section, I've marked down lots of products, including Valentine's Day goodies - copper cookie cutters, ribbons, baking supplies, etc. Almost everything 20-50%. I'm also reactivating the $5 Shipping on orders over $50. Go crazy. Buy goodies for your Valentines and a couple of things for yourself ; )

These light and fluffy cake cookie sandwiches are all of the rage these days. I recently read an article (NY Times, maybe?) that claimed the Whoopie Pie was the new cupcake. Wow. Bold statement!

I'm not sure about the new cupcake, but I do like that they are a more 'homey' rustic dessert that seems to have a casual quality, as apposed to the 'pretty' cupcake with the swirls of icing. In fact, they might be a more 'manly' cupcake option. Definitely a more transportable cupcake option - even after years of catering and delivering cupcakes, it is always one of my biggest struggles!

On the 'manly' note, Mike specifically requested these this week after his first Whoopie Pie experience while visiting our friends in Maine last weekend. I knew he would love them as his favorite cake combo is chocolate cake with white icing. A Whoopie Pie fan was his destiny.

Like cupcakes the possibilities are endless. I had a friend post of my facebook wall today that she had recently heard of a Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pie. I can only image that with fluffy cream cheese icing. Oh wow. I will definitely be experimenting with that this Fall.

While looking at different recipes online today, I found many different looking whoopie pies. For me, a great Whoopie is in the lightness and fluffiness of the cake AND the icing. The entire thing should taste like a fluffy, chocolate and cream cloud.

I am a huge fan of anything that starts with a cake mix. For some reason, it just seems more manageable if it starts with a box! The result was great... and very quick to make. Highly, highly recommended. Oh, and what makes these even better is they are great to freeze, too. I'm going to put them in the freezer to get out for Mike's lunches everyday.

In a mixer, combine cake mix, eggs, water and oil. Whip together for 2-3 minutes.

On a parchment paper* or Silpat lined baking sheet, scoop out batter into round mounds. I used a small ice cream scoop that measured 1 2/3 inches in diameter. Use the back of a spoon to round out scoops of batter into perfect circles.

*I've switched to using pre-cut parchment sheets
that fit perfectly in a sheet pan... they are a dream. They are
non-stick and you can just throw them away after you use them. I use
them for everything - cookies, roasting vegetables, meatballs, etc. I'm
stocking them in my store as one of my favorite "essentials" - 200 sheets for $12... which should be a year supply. No more washing the silpat.

Bake for 8 minutes. Cool.

For the icing, in your mixer with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and sugar (start with 3 cups of powdered sugar, then add more if necessary for thickness). Whip for 5 minutes until light and fluffy (the extra time makes all the difference!). Scoop into a pastry bag (you can buy here, 20 bags for $12) with the end cut with a 1/2 inch opening.

To fill, pipe icing onto the bottom cookie (wrong side up), then top with another cookie (right side up).

You can make any size you'd like, these ended up being almost 5 inches!

*Again, I've switched to using pre-cut parchment sheets - one of my new favorite things.

Whipping the butter and powdered sugar for 5 minutes gives it a really fluffy, airy quality.

Here is my pastry bag with the end cut off... also one of my favorite things. They make it so much easier to control rather than just spreading with a knife. I use disposable so I don't have to worry about washing it... I can just toss it. Usually I have a little left in the bag, so I just put the bag in the refrigerator, then get it out anytime I need a little icing. You can buy them here.

Bottom half.

...and top. Looks like a big fluffy oreo, right?! I think I must go have another one right now with a big glass of milk.

How cute would they looked piled in these Pink Bakery Boxes (you can find them here, 10 for $8) for Valentine's Day!? I can just picture them stacked in with parchment sheets in between.... maybe the sides of the icing are covered with valentine's sprinkles?! Ok, I think I'll have to try that now.

I just made these - wanted to let you know it made 32 cookies, so enough to make 16 whoopie pies. they turned out great.. just make sure you don't make them too big. they really expand when you bake them.

Anyone have experience using fluff in the filling? Most of the other recipes I'm finding use fluff, and I'm wondering what type of differences there would be taste and consistency wise between this recipe and those.

How do you store them...are the tops more like a cookie or cake? I'm thinking in a tin, so they don't go sticky on the top. Can you freeze them? Going to make them for St Patrick's Day, chocolate cake mix, subsitute Guinness for the water, add some Baileys & green food colouring to the filling.

I've been making Whoopie Pies since 1970. They were always my daughters and their friends favorite homemade sweet treat. Being from the East coast, I always used the Amish (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) recipe (not made from a box mix). They are scrumptous.

Yes, if you are making the Pies from a box mix, you can use any flavor you'd like (i.e., chocolate (of course), strawberry, red velvelt, lemon, yellow, chocolate chip, etc.). I've never used the "fluff" though. There are a number of recipes on-line that call for the marshmallow fluff.

Someone asked about storing the Pies? Store at room temperature: Cover the Pies (individually) with plastic wrap. Store on counter or table in an open container up to three (3) days (however, one time, they actually stayed in the house longer than three days...on the seventh day they were gone...my girls ate them). To freeze the Pies: Wrap the pies i aluminum foil, up to three (3) months. Let the Pies thaw at room temperature overnight before serving.

I know my article is lengthy, but I hope it is of some help to someone. TTFN...

Oh, I forgot to mention what my girls called them...round Devil Dogs (Drakes made them). Those of you who've had them or who have seen them, know that they are long shaped not round. Everything else about the Devil Dog is the same as the Whoopie Pie. I stopped buying the Devil Dog when I started baking the Whoopie Pie. Also, the Whoopie Pie has been around since the early 1900's (about 1920). It's not new. TTFN...

I'm from central Pennsylvania. We've had these forever. Well, at least from the 1950's when I was a child. We called them Gobs. The Harris Boyer (Bunny Bread) Company made them commercially and they had a picture of a sailor (nicknamed gobs) on them. Although commercially-made gobs are no longer available, we still eat and love the homemade ones. There was a stand at the Fall Foliage Festival in Bedford this past fall that sold only whoopie pies, made in chocolate, red velvet, oatmeal, pumpkin, and spice flavors....delicious!!

Oh my gosh! I love the Fall Foliage Festival in Bedford, PA!! I just moved back to Massachusetts this past summer from living in Bedford (Manns Choice actually). I was searching online for a recipe for Gobs and found this one and I always check out comments so I find it soo funny to see this post, small world!! Also, I call them Gobs now thanks to being in Central PA the last few years but up here in MA I got all kinds of weird looks talking about Gobs (and all of the awesome flavors that I had tried in PA). They're called Whoopie Pie's here, which I knew from growing up in Mass. Anyways, I've been craving all of the yummy flavors of GOBS from the festival and from the produce stand on Mile Level...that was my favorite place to get Gobs, especially the red velvet and pumpkin one's. Makes me "homesick" for PA :( So I'm making the red velvet one's tonight. Hopefully I'll make it down for the Fall Foliage Festival this fall, but I just wanted to comment on the irony of all this. haha. take care and enjoy those yummy Gobs! haha

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!! My grandson has an Easy bake oven and is wanting to make these. I'm going crazing looking for a recipe and this one looks GREAT! I'm going to mix them up and let him have is baking time.

I'm so exicted to make these from a cake mix. I'm going to try this reciepe today the one from above. Just a quick ltl. note to all you WHOOPIE FANS in MAINE I think in Doverfoxcroft in Sept. they have a BIG WHOOPIE FESTIVAL every year.

Just found this site yesterday. In under 2 hours was able to make 10 dozen 1" pies using my Kitchen Aid mixer, one box of red velvet cake mix and plastic lunch baggies for both the cookie and the icing. I baked my little dollops of batter just over 5 minutes. Love it!

I made these for a Little League car wash and they were a big seller! Using my small cookie batter scoop, they were the perfect size. Tonight I made them for Father's Day and used a large scoop, thinking that my husband would prefer a bigger pie. I put 11 pies on a cookie sheet and ended up with one large rectangular pie on the sheet -- that's how big they got! Next time I'll stick with the small scoop. :)

I just made these with a Pillsbury chocolate cake box. They were too thick with just 1/2 a cup of water so next time I'll just follow the recipe on the box, which is 1 cup of water. Because the batter was so thick, I ended up making huge whoopies, about 16 halves, so 8 huge whoopie pies. 8 minutes was too long and one pan got burnt; they burn easily at 400°. I'm not good at baking (hence the boxed mix) but I think for the frosting you should make sure its unsalted butter, I used LOL salted and it tasted kinda gross. I added a bunch of cocoa powder and Hershey's chocolate syrup to make it taste chocolatey and better. They taste great now. :)

I tried this with a chocolate cake mix, and they turned out perfectly! Then, today, I tried this method with a duncan hines red velvet cake mix. The tops and bottoms of the gobs didn't rise up like the chocolate cake ones did, instead they look like they are pretty flat cookies. Anybody have an idea of why this is the case and if there is anything I can do to change that? I would love to make ones like the chocolate but with red velvet mix!